U.S. ponders cutbacks in aid to Egypt

Oct. 9, 2013
|

President Obama / Pablo Martinez Monsivais, AP

by David Jackson, USA TODAY

by David Jackson, USA TODAY

Don't be surprised if the Obama administration announces aid cuts to Egypt in the coming days -- some aid, but not all.

The Associated Press and other news outlets, citing unnamed officials, report that prospective cutbacks are a response to continuing violence in Egypt, months after the military removed President Mohammed Morsi from power.

The administration is not providing details, but says it does not plan to cut all aid to Egypt.

"The reports that we are halting all military assistance to Egypt are false," said Caitlin Hayden, spokeswoman for the National Security Council. "We will announce the future of our assistance relationship with Egypt in the coming days, but as the president made clear at UNGA (the United Nations General Assembly), that assistance relationship will continue."

"The U.S. has been considering such a move since the Egyptian military ousted the country's first democratically elected leader in June.

"It would be a dramatic shift for the Obama administration, which has declined to label President Mohammed Morsi's ouster a coup and has argued that it is in U.S. national security interests to keep aid flowing.

"It would also likely have profound implications for decades of close U.S.-Egyptian ties that have served as a bulwark of security and stability in the Middle East.

"The move follows a particularly violent weekend in Egypt, as dozens of people were killed in clashes between security forces and Morsi supporters."